by Gerard van Keken

We haven’t spoken yet very much about the fundamental essentials of place. Is that necessary, you might ask yourself? Yes it is. The word place comes originally from ‘plat’, Proto-Indo-European language, a language spoken 5.500 years ago. Its meaning was then ‘to spread’. By the Greek word ‘plateia’ (broad way) en the Latin word ‘platea’ (courtyard, open space, broad street), the word became familiar in French and English: place. It’s meaning referred to an open space in a city, market place, square. The Italian word ‘piazza’ en the Spanish word ‘plaza’, are still close to the etymological meaning of the word. But the word place has taken on more meanings relating to its position, or sayings like “things take place”, “come to my place” et cetera.

According to Sime (1986, p.49 in van der Ven, 1978) the concept of place can be traced back to the ancient philosophical writings of the Greek Aristotle. Place or ‘topos’ in his view, was the ‘where’ dimension in people’s relationship to the physical environment, conjuring up a feeling of belonging.

Hence, how about this ‘where’ dimension today in the face of globalization and regionalization? The phenomena of globalizing values, economic and political actions caused several people to predict the end of place. For example, Knoke (1997) stated in his book ‘Bold New World’ that place no longer mattered. Maybe he was right when he speaks about the world of placelessness and a world without frontiers. But at the same time he forgot that there is another world besides the world of globalization and placeless ’mess’. A world of places for people where place does matter, as more and more people find out in this world of crisis. Places where we can trust people, places that gives roots to people, anchors, safety and security.

If we have a look at the other word ‘inspiring (inspiration)’, this originally means ‘immediate influence of God or a god’. The Latin word ‘inspirare’ means to blow into or upon, to breathe into. So this means that an inspiring place might in one way or the other mean that a certain place could have the potential to make you breathe in, which it sometimes really does (wherever you are looking at or thinking of), and the consequence is that you get something else on your mind, get touched by an influence of what some people call God, nature or whatever you want to call it. The word inspiration as a creative power is due to the Italian Dante, who lived in the Middle Ages and used the Italian word ‘inspirazione’.

So inspiring places are places that matter to people. It’s not only the place, but what is there and what is not there. Sometimes what we cannot see, might be more important than what we can see. Inspiring places must do something with you, they have meanings. It almost makes you breathe in (and out), because it touches upon you. And the possibilities are enormous, endless and very diverse. The sea, mountains, people, a smile, a car, architecture, atmosphere, music, culture of a certain place. In the globalized world we should not forget to look nearby, because inspiring places are both outside and inside of us.

references
Knoke, W. (1997). Bold New World. New York: Kodansha International.
Sime J.D. (1986). Creating Places or designing Spaces. In: Journal of Environmental Psychology. Vol. 6, pp.49-63.
Ven, V. v.d. (1978). Space in Architecture. Amsterdam/Assen: van Gorcum.
http://www.humanityquest.com/themes/inspiration/Etymology/
http://www.etymonline.com